A Predator's Song
by TechnoFusion
Summary: Judy Hopps noticed the boy almost everywhere she went. There was something unique about the boy, something that people were afraid of. They all assumed bad things about him. However, from one look at him, Judy knew that he was no predator. OR: Judy is a popular girl, Nick is a poor discriminated loner who has given up on his passion for music. Loose insp. from "Your Lie in April".
1. The Song That Started It All

Zootopia was a wonderful place. It was a vibrant, almost magical land where anyone could be anything, the kind of place animals just a short time ago thought would only exist in films about dystopian societies. It was that type of place, with none of the drawbacks.

Or rather, that was what they all wanted you to believe.

To any outsider, Zootopia lived up to the hype. It really seemed like an untroubled, worry-free, discrimination-free place where everywhere you looked, you'd see a smiling face.

However, anyone who spent an extended period of time in Zootopia could tell that despite how perfect everything looked on the outside, it got pretty bumpy at times on the inside.

There was a lot of crime. Like, a ridiculous amount of crime. Which tends to happen when you let anyone be anything, right? Some people will take advantage of that privilege for evil. Thankfully, Zootopia had a strong police force that was on the clock 24/7 to keep the city safe.

The major problem in Zootopia, however, was how mistreated a certain species was.

Every other predatory species had managed to wiggle their way into acceptance through years and years of history too long to recap here.

But for whatever reason, the foxes either didn't care or were just too damn lazy to prove everyone wrong. Therefore, foxes never redeemed themselves. Every single nasty stereotype about foxes had been accepted over the years. Foxes were the butt of every joke. It was like this in almost every city (except for Foxburrow, of course), but it was especially bad in Zootopia.

Especially among teenagers.

As much as it pained them, the people of Zootopia had no choice but to admit that the halls of Zootopia High were not a safe place for a fox. It was just something about the adolescent brain that had triggered the bullying and traumatic news stories they'd tried so hard to cover up over the years.

As such, every fox family in Zootopia had transferred their children to private schools or homeschooled them.

All except for one.

* * *

There was always something wrong about the hallways of her school, and no matter where Judy went, it followed her.

She was, of course, talking about the elephant in the room. Who sadly wasn't an actual elephant, or he might be treated with some dignity. A boy.

Judy Hopps noticed the boy almost everywhere she went. There was something unique about the boy, something that people were afraid of. They all assumed bad things about him. However, from one look at him, Judy knew that he was no predator.

This boy was a fox.

Whenever she so much as tried to brush shoulders with the fox in the hallways, the animals around her gave her looks of pure terror, like the boy was going to suddenly turn rabid and devour her right then.

Then they got looks of anger at the boy, trying their best to protect her. Everyone liked Judy Hopps, after all, and didn't want to see her get hurt. Straight-A student, choir girl, friendly to all. The only thing that was kinda odd about her was her desire to be apart of the Zootopia Police Department one day (she was a bunny, after all), but she didn't bring that up much.

Judy appreciated all the care her peers had for her. She just wished they would share some of that care with the loner fox boy, who to her knowledge had done no harm.

Lost in thought after encountering him with his usual melancholy expression, earbuds in in the hallway one day, Judy wasn't paying any attention to her surroundings. As the universe's punishment, she bumped right into a round, sturdy surface that knocked her flat on her feet.

It was her friend Clawhauser. A big, goofy cheetah who tended to be just a wee bit clumsy.

"O.M. goodness!" Clawhauser yelled in a concerned tone, picking the girl up from the ground, brushing her off, and then proceeding to pick her books up for her.

"Clawhauser, man, I can take-" Judy began before being cut off.

"No, no, no. It's my fault. I can get these. Hey, did you get my text?"

"Your text?" Judy asked, reaching into her pocket. "My phone didn't go...where is my phone."

"Huh? You lost your phone?"

"Apparently so."

"What class were you in last?"

"Mixed chorus. Might've slipped out of my pocket in there."

"Ah." Clawhauser said. "Well, don't be long. I'll save you a spot at lunch for as long as I can, but you know how that room gets cray-cray."

Judy giggled. "I'll try not to be. See you in a few!"

Clawhauser waved as Judy strolled down the school to the music room in search of her cellular device.

* * *

Approaching the brown double doors that led to the music room, Judy couldn't help but notice a voice coming from inside. An unfamiliar voice.

It took a few seconds for Judy's mind to process the voice, but once it did, she had to do a double take. Whoever the voice was coming from, they sang beautifully. They flawlessly hit every note in a way that would put even the best musicians in her class to shame.

Why wasn't this voice familiar to her? Why wasn't this person in mixed chorus?

The voice was singing to an instrumental playing in the background in rather low quality (probably off ZooTube), but still managed to work phenomenally with such poor source material supporting it.

"Amos, amas, I love a lass..."

Judy began to hum the familiar tone, getting lost in beautiful visuals forming inside her mind to the sound as she tapped her foot, stopped at the entrance of the music room.

 _"As a cedar tall and slender."_

Catching ahold of herself for a brief moment, Judy's eyes opened and nearly bugged out of her head as she saw who was singing the delightful tune.

 _"Sweet cowslip's grace is her nominative case..."_

A pause. This one kept tripping up her choir when they performed it a couple of years back. How would the soloist fox handle it?

 _"And she's of the feminine gender."_

Freaking magnificently, that's how.

The music abruptly came to an end.

Giving a puzzled peer at the fox, Judy saw that he had shut his phone off, and was now proceeding to bang his head against the chalkboard.

 _"Damn it."_ The fox cursed, timing his bangs against the board with each obscenity. _"Damn it. Damn it. What the hell? Why?"_

Why was he beating himself up? That was really, really good.

Judy wasn't planning on intruding, but decided that this was a case where she absolutely needed to.

"No, no, no!" Judy exclaimed in a worried, sympathetic tone, causing the fox to jump from the chalkboard with a yelp. "Sorry about that. But you shouldn't be beating yourself up! That was amazing!"

The fox had an expression of pure panic on his face as he looked at the cheerful bunny. Judy noticed the color slowly drain from his face as he struggled to hold himself up.

All at once, he fell to the ground gracefully.

 _"Oh, crap!"_

* * *

 **A/N: Song is "Amos, Amas" by John O'Keefe (public domain).**

 **I dunno how close to "Your Lie in April" this will end up being as I haven't finished said anime yet. I also apologize if my updates are a bit slow as I am currently moving and probably will be bingewatching the rest of "Your Lie in April" soon.**

 **I promise next chapter will be longer, I just have church in the morning and want to get this out there. Hope you all enjoyed despite its brief length. :) As always, R &R is highly appreciated.**


	2. Melody of the Broken

"Oh, crap!"

Judy ran to the fox immediately in concern, trying to pick him up off the ground. His whole body was limp, and as soon as she lost her grip he fell back down again.

"Oh, geez." Judy moaned, biting her lip anxiously. "I hope he doesn't have a concussion..."

Nick began to open one eye, peering up at the rabbit and tilting his head. "Mom?"

Judy giggled. "Not quite. Are you alright? Do you want me to take you to the nurse?"

"No, no, no, don't trouble yourself." Nick insisted, picking himself up off the ground. "I'll be fine. This floor isn't that hard. I don't even think it's my first fall on it."

"Aww." Judy moaned sympathetically before peering around the room. "Before I forget, you wouldn't happen to have seen a phone around here, would-"

"In front of the board."

Judy looked over to the board - bingo!

"Thanks." Judy said, smiling at the fox as she walked over to the chalkboard and grabbed her cellular device. "Speaking of the board, why were you hitting your head against it before? You were doing really good."

Nick sighed. "No, I wasn't."

"Yes, you were! And why aren't you in a choir class? You have real talent!"

"Listen, bunny, you're cute and all trying to brighten my day, but from now on, leave me be like everyone else, alright?" Nick snapped at the rabbit, again banging his head against the chalkboard for good measure.

Judy's ears drooped before she got a stern look on her face. "You...like everyone ignoring you?"

"Well, not exactly, but I've gotten used to it."

"That's nice." Judy sighed. "Is that why you're not in a choir class? Too many people?"

"You're way off base." Nick replied.

"And what would you know about base, considering you're not in choir?"

Nick chuckled. "You're a funny one, bunny. What's your name?"

"I'm Judy. Judy Hopps." Judy stated. "And you?"

"Nick Wilde." Nick replied. "You're more then welcome to forget it, as this is probably the first and only time we'll ever speak to each other."

Judy frowned. "I'm not going to leave you alone in here for all of lunch, you realize that, right?"

"Why not? This is what I do every day."

"Because...because..." Judy stuttered. "It's just not right, okay?"

Whipping her phone out, she sent a text to her friend Clawhauser: "No need to save my seat. Something's come up. Sorry."

Nick sighed, pulling his lunch out of a bag he had lying against the piano in the room. "Persistent, aren't you, Hopps?"

"Indeed I am, Wilde." Judy replied.

* * *

The first few minutes they spent in the music room together were in complete silence, except for the sound of their own chewing.

Judy wasn't sure what to talk about with Nick, actually. Every question she had given him he seemed to shut down easily with a snarky response.

"So, uh..." Judy started, gnawing on a carrot stick and using her full brain capacity to figure out how to make Nick talk to her. "What exactly did you think you did wrong before? I mean, when you stopped playing?"

Nick looked up at her and laughed. "You wanna know the truth?"

Judy nodded.

"I honestly don't know if I did anything wrong or not. I couldn't hear a thing you were playing."

Judy gave the fox a puzzled look. "I don't follow."

"Oh, boy, flashback time." Nick sighed, stretching in his chair and letting out a yawn.

As Nick told his story, Judy couldn't help but note what a vivid storyteller he was. His details were so good she could form sort of a movie in her mind of the events he was describing.

* * *

It was a windy evening, and a lot of people were gathered at Zootopia Elementary School, which was rather unusual for the evening time.

However, there was a valid reason for them all to be there: it was the night of the elementary school choir concert. Of course, lots of parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters would be there to enjoy seeing the cubs of Zootopia show off their musical talent.

There was only one kid in the entire school who had no one there to watch him, and his name was Nick Wilde.

He **really, really** didn't want to be there, and had multiple valid reasons why he shouldn't have needed to attend. His life had been difficult lately, ever since he had lost the one person in the world who gave him life (both as a metaphor and literally) and cared about him most in the world.

There was no choice for him in the matter, his father had stated. It was for a grade. A huge grade.

His father.

It wasn't that Nick had a bad relationship with his father. It was that they both were healing, and perhaps would have benefitted from some time away from each other; alas, they had nowhere to go.

Any time one of them would pass by so much as her favorite mug in the sink, something in their brains triggered them to fight. To try to drown out any sort of girly, sad emotion inside of them with masculinity.

After all, boys don't cry. At least not around other boys.

When Nick arrived at the concert, all dressed up in his fancy choir outfit, he felt the usual tension increase in the room with each step he took. Just by having a fox in the room, every single person had either brought their stuff closer to them or started talking at a much quieter tone.

They honestly thought that an eight-year-old with about as much muscle as a roll of toilet paper was going to be a threat to them.

Not that it bothered Nick anymore. He'd been used to the glares, the stares, the cowering in fear for years now.

The only person who seemed happy to see him was his choir teacher, who was having a private discussion with him backstage.

"I'm really happy you came tonight, Nick." His choir teacher stated with a big grin. She was a boar, a stern, steady creature who was usually quite neutral-faced and strict in class. It was surprising to see her so happy. She **really** was glad to see him.

"I know about the stuff going on at home." The boar continued. "But I gave you that solo because I think you can do it, alright? Good musicians, and especially **really** good musicians don't let what's going on in the outside world affect their talent. And you're a **really** good musician. Do you get what I'm saying here?"

Nick nodded.

"Good." His teacher smiled. The lights began to dim in the auditorium. "Now get out there. Break a leg! Figuratively, of course."

Nick took a deep breath, and slowly but surely made his way onto the stage.

All at once, the audience's looks of excitement turned to those of fright, or a simple frown. They were prejudging his performance before he'd let out a single lyric.

The piano player nodded to Nick, beginning to tap her keys in a synchronized order to produce the tune Nick was going to be performing his solo to.

He only had a couple of seconds to prepare, and maybe thirty seconds for his solo.

Thirty seconds to show everyone that everything they knew about foxes was wrong.

 **"Be near me when my light is low."**

Looking into the audience as he sang, Nick saw some of the expressions turn puzzled or in awe as they listened to the boy's melody.

 **"When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick and tingle."**

A few smiles began to appear in the audience. Nick felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in his torso. One that he hadn't felt since the last time he was able to be with his mother. He was glad he came tonight.

 **"And the heart is sick."**

Some of the audience began to sing along happily with Nick.

 **"And all the-"**

All at once, Nick felt his heart sink into his stomach. The smiles in the audience began to disappear.

He couldn't explain what was happening to him. It felt like words were coming out, but he couldn't hear them.

All he could hear was an awful ringing. Any time he tried to make a sound with his mouth, the awful ringing continued. So he stopped.

Some of the members in the audience appeared very angry.

"If you're not gonna sing, **get off the stage, fox!"** A hickish voice yelled from the audience.

There were a few mutters of approval from the audience.

Nick ran off the stage, tears in his eyes. He saw his choir teacher begin to run to comfort him, but she stopped - probably realizing she had the rest of her choir to lead.

There was **cheering** from the audience. They were glad to see the fox gone.

And at this point in his life, Nick would have been more than happy to see himself gone as well.

* * *

Judy sniffled, saying nothing for a couple of seconds as the fox finished his story. "Wow..."

"Aw, don't get all cry-y on me now." Nick teased. "It's not a big deal to me anymore. It happened eight years ago. And ever since then, every time I try to sing, there's a point where I just can't hear myself anymore. It's a curse, maybe a punishment. I don't know what I did wrong though...except for being born a fox."

"Don't say that." Judy ordered sternly. "You are **not** any less for being born a fox."

"Please don't flatter me. It didn't work when my choir teacher did it, and it's certainly not going to work when a bunny I've known for all of a half-hour does it."

"Well-" Judy began, before getting interrupted by a bell signaling lunch was over.

"Catch you later." Nick said, grabbing his bag and beginning to bolt out of the music room. "Probably not, actually."

Judy sighed, her ears drooping as she left the music room. Glancing at her phone again, she saw that Clawhauser had replied about a half-hour ago.

"Is it a boy? I can help with that.", the text read.

Oh, Clawhauser. Judy thought to herself, walking down the hallway to her next class. This one might be too tough for you, as crazy as that sounds.

* * *

 **A/N: Song is "Be near me when my light is low" by Huub de Lange. I am now remembering why I prefer Archive of Our Own, as the song I wanted to use here was "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley. However, FanFiction's rules strictly forbid the use of song lyrics outside of the public domain, despite the fact that my use of them would clearly fit under fair use. If you wanna see the version with "Hallelujah", it's on Archive of Our Own.**

 **As usual, R &R highly appreciated. See you all next time!**


	3. The Song of Persuasion

Much to Nick's alarm, his phone was ringing.

He was sitting at home in his bedroom, idly tossing a basketball at his ceiling for no reason other than he'd seen it in movies and thought it might be fun to pass time. Sadly, the movies made it look much cooler than it already was.

His father was home downstairs, and he was pretty much the only person who ever called Nick.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID. It was a number from...Bunnyburrow? Probably a telemarketer. Still, messing with them would probably be more entertaining then what he was doing at the moment.

"Hello?" Nick asked, accepting the call and holding his phone to his ear.

 _"Hey, so, Ms. Hewkin said that she could totally squeeze you into her mixed chorus if you're willing to audition."_

" **What?!"** Nick exclaimed, almost dropping his phone. The voice on the other line was a voice that was unfortunately familiar to him. He held the phone away from his ear and sighed, burying his head in his paws. _"How in the hell..."_

After a couple seconds, Nick held the phone back up to his ear. "How did you get my number?"

 _"I know a guy."_ Judy replied on the other line, Nick recognizing the smugness in her voice. _"That's not important right now. So, I think you could totally get in if-"_

"Not interested." Nick interrupted, lying back down on his bed and grabbing the basketball again. Maybe it'd be more fun to try tossing the basketball with one hand with his phone in the other. "Please don't call again."

 _"But-"_

The bunny continued to speak, annoying Nick greatly. Distracted, he tossed the basketball into the air subconsciously, not being prepared to catch it and it hitting him straight in the nuzzle.

 _"Ow!"_ Nick exclaimed, holding his nuzzle and moaning in pain.

 _"Are you alright?"_ Judy asked. _"That didn't sound good. I have a first aid kit-"_

"No! Why do you keep trying to _help_ me? It's not natural for a bunny to care so much about a fox! Stop being weird!"

" _I-"_

 _Click._

His nuzzle still sore, Nick realized after hanging up that maybe he had been too hard on Judy. If this didn't stop hurting soon, he'd really need a first aid kit.

Going into his phone again, he opened his rather bare contacts list, added the rabbit's number, and assigned a random song to it before burying his head in his pillow.

* * *

 ** _"It's peanut butter jelly time!"_**

Nick was abruptly startled from his sleep by his phone, yet again.

"What the hell?!" Nick exclaimed, looking at his phone. He'd only been asleep for about an hour - it felt like longer. His phone volume was much louder than before he'd went to sleep - he must've pressed something in his sleep.

Also, Judy was calling him again.

 _Note to self: Check what ringtone you're assigning someone before hitting "Okay.",_ Nick thought to himself before picking up the phone.

"What could it _possibly_ be this time?" Nick snapped.

 _"What's the best ice cream you've ever had?"_ Judy asked on the other line. From the sound of her surroundings, she seemed to be in a busy area.

Nick chuckled. "What is this, a poll?"

 _"Just answer the question."_

"Well, I'd have to say...oh, yeah! My mom got me this blueberry cheesecake ice cream that was super expensive for my birthday one year. It had actual cheesecake pieces in it and stuff."

 _"Alrighty."_

"Now will you tell me why-"

Nick was unable to finish this sentence, as this time the bunny had hung up on _him._

"Was that supposed to be payback?" Nick thought out loud, sighing and turning his phone off.

* * *

The next day at school was the same old, same old for Nick. He actually went into the barren music room again, and much to his surprise Judy didn't come in and start bothering him (at least that he knew of - she could've been spying on him somewhere).

Everything seemed normal, until when closing his locker to go home, his space was suddenly violated by the feel of a cold, creamy, _delicious_ spoonful of something in his mouth.

Lost in bliss for a second, he was snapped back to reality as his eyes realized who had shoved the substance into his mouth.

"Judy!" Nick exclaimed. "What in the world...?"

"Good, huh?" Judy questioned, hands on her hips.

"Well, yeah, whatever it was..." Nick began, before the events of last night came to him. "Oh my god. How...? Why...?"

Judy opened her bag, revealing her lunchbox. In the top compartment, there was a pint of ice cream labeled _"Extremely Blueberry - REAL Cheesecake Pieces! Jen and Berry's" ,_ surrounded by an ice pack and some additional ice presumably to keep it from melting.

"It's yours if you come with me." Judy said, grabbing the fox's hand.

"Oh, uh, okay." Nick replied.

"Great!"

Before Nick knew it, they were taking off to places unknown. In a matter of seconds, they had went from the junior hallways down to the music room. Man, she was fast.

 _Wait...the music room.,_ Nick thought to himself, his confusion turning to alarm. _Son of a..._

"Bye!" Nick exclaimed, trying to let go of the rabbit before they met the doors. It was no use, as she only grabbed onto his hand tighter, and gave him sort of a puppy-dog-eyes look. She gestured to the ice cream.

"You really don't want this then?" Judy questioned.

" _Fine."_ Nick replied fiercely, entering the music room with Judy behind him.

Looking up, he saw that it wasn't just the two of them in the room. In front of them was a familiar zebra, clad in a blue dress. He had seen her in the hallways before. She must have been the high school music teacher, Ms. Hewkin.

"Is this the boy you've been talking about?" Ms. Hewkin asked Judy, smiling.

"Yes, it is." Judy replied, smiling back at her teacher.

Nick gave a nervous smile to the music teacher, shaking her hand.

"Well, Nick, there's no time to waste." Ms. Hewkin said, reaching into a folder she had in her right hand. "My friend here tells me you've got a great voice."

"One could say that." Nick replied.

Pulling three little booklets out of her folder, she sat them in front of Nick on a table. He recognized them as music pieces.

"These are the choices for your audition." Ms. Hewkin stated. "However, I will warn you that one is significantly harder than the others-"

Nick picked a piece up, indicating what he wanted. Ms. Hewkin's jaw dropped for a second, before she forced it closed again.

"Um...are you sure?" Ms. Hewkin asked. "That's the one I was going to tell you was harder than the others."

The piece in question was entitled _Gaudete,_ a piece that Nick had practiced alone in the music room before. He knew that he could get further through it without losing his hearing for some reason.

"Yes, I'm sure." Nick stated.

"Alright then." Ms. Hewkin said, giving Nick a second to open his music as she went over to her computer. Her computer began to play an instrumental, presumably the one for _Gaudete._ Clearing his throat, within a few seconds Nick was singing again.

 _"Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus..."_

Ms. Hewkin did a double take, looking at Nick in alarm in the same way Judy had that fateful day. They both were smiling at him, completely amazed at the power of his voice. This was a song usually sang by a full choir, but Nick's voice had the power of some entire choirs the teacher had taught before.

 _"Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!"_

While the females in the room were ecstatic, Nick began to feel sick to his stomach. He knew what was coming. No matter what, he couldn't stop it from happening. Even if he was enjoying singing at the moment, he was going to end up blowing the audition.

 _"Gaudete, gaudete; gaudete, gaudete...gaudete, oh, gaudete..."_

"That's enough." Ms. Hewkin stated, surprising Nick by stopping the instrumental. He exhaled. "I just...wow. Why haven't you...wow."

"So I'm presuming he's in?" Judy questioned, touching Nick's shoulder and smiling.

"Yes!" Ms. Hewkin exclaimed. "See you tomorrow!"

"Thank you." Nick stated, trying his best to hold himself together. The feeling in his stomach was only getting stronger.

"No, thank you." Ms. Hewkin replied, winking at him as the two of them walked out of the music room.

Once the doors were closed, Judy let out a yelp of glee.

"That was great!" Judy stated, patting Nick on the back. "I knew she'd love it. And you made it through the beginning part fine; maybe-"

Judy was unable to finish her sentence, as she looked at the fox and saw all the color had drained from his face. The fox was bolting at the speed of light, even faster than Judy had before taking him to the music room.

She chased after him. He entered a gender-neutral restroom and ran to one of the stalls. Judy stood outside of it as she heard the sound of retching, cringing as she heard him moan in agony.

Nick opened the stall, a furious expression on his face. "Do you see what happens? It's even _worse_ when people are watching! But no, try to bribe me into something that I physically can't do!"

"Nick..." Judy tried to interrupt, her tone of voice sounding hurt.

"No, let me finish. I _know_ what you thought. You thought you were going to be some great hero, bringing me back to my passion just with the snap of your fingers. You thought I was being dramatic, didn't you? Well, now you've seen first hand. So thank you, Judy. Thank you for the ice cream, because I need to replenish myself after vomiting up everything I've eaten today into the toilet bowl."

A tear fell from Judy's eye as she looked down at the floor. Opening her bag, she shoved the ice cream at him before running out of the bathroom. He heard her gasp for air, probably trying her best not to break down in front of him.

As soon as she ran out, Nick began to intensely feel a sensation of guilt.

* * *

 **A/N: Song is "Gaudete", originally published in "Piae Cantiones" (public domain).**

 **Also, I must make a correction: last chapter I stated in the A/N that "Hallelujah" was by Jeff Buckley. This was incorrect - the original recording was by Leonard Cohen.**

 **As usual, R &R highly appreciated. :)**


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